What's Cooking?

[MOPanfisher]

Heck I just like fried livers, especially with a little cajun seasoning.  Hate to waste them in the gravy.

[ness]

5 hours ago, Gavin said:

I do toss the gizzard and heart into the gravy in very fine dice. Neck & back meat go into the dressing. The dog gets the liver. Love some pasta with chicken livers, just not enough liver and busy. It does not work well in the gravy stock.

I usually use the neck and back for stock for the gravy. Since I’m not doing the turkey this year, I’m using a recipe from Chef John on Allrecipes using turkey wings and a mirepoix roasted. House smells great right now! I’ll post up pictures later. 

[Chief Grey Bear]

First turkey pic of the season 

[BilletHead]

13 minutes ago, Chief Grey Bear said:

First turkey pic of the season 

           Do I recognize that smoker? 

  BilletHead

[Chief Grey Bear]

7 minutes ago, BilletHead said:

           Do I recognize that smoker? 

  BilletHead

You better!

[MOPanfisher]

Love the color on that bird Chief!

[Johnsfolly]

Great looking bird! What a mahogany color. Great job.

[BilletHead]

                   I bet there are some full bellies by now or soon to be. Happy thanksgiving guys and gals. We had ours last Saturday with BilletHead Jr. and his family. So today as Mrs. BilletHead and I were sitting in the marsh hunting ducks we discussed what we would do for our meal today.  We made a decision,

  I have decided if there was one meal that I could share and cook for you all it would be this. We had just done this not too long ago. A section of venison back loin roast. This time seasoned with smoked salt, pepper, sliced garlic, thyme and sage out of the garden and crushed juniper berries. This was sealed in the vacuum bag then immersed in sous vide bath at 127 for a couple hours. Later we made another pan of dressing and slid it into the oven. Love that stuff. As I heated a skillet of butter Mrs. BilletHead made some horseradish mashed potatoes. When butter was hot and beginning to brown in went the loin to sear,

  All the way around and on the ends were seared and caramelized.  Back in the house the meat went and into the skillet some red zinfandel to the hot butter and scraped up the brown bits. A couple big spoonful's of gooseberry jam. All reduced to a thick sauce to put on the meat,

      Whole cranberry sauce too. I need to try this with one of the hindquarter roasts too. Venison is pretty traditional in my book for Thanksgiving. If we had the freezer space I would take out another deer or two ,

    BilletHead

[Johnsfolly]

Nice meal Marty! I'll post our meal photos tomorrow. Too full to do it now 😌.

Saw 8 deer this morning in the yard. This evening had a parade. First a fawn followed by a 1 1/2 year old 5 pt. 10 mins later two big does came by followed a large mature 8 pt. Then another doe and fawn. Did get permission to hunt in the woodlot with my bow. Will hunt it after getting back to Maryland in Dec.

[ness]

Well, here’s the plate from this afternoon. Smoked turkey, mashed taters, gravy, good ol’ green bean casserole, a sweet potato casserole, corn casserole, jello salad, Kings Hawaiian roll and deviled egg. 

Everything was just delicious, and I came home with a load of leftovers to tide me over until Thanksgiving 2.0 on Saturday.

Here’s the setup for the gravy I made. Mirepoix and turkey legs roasted then simmered to make a stock. Awfully good but I needed to skim more fat off before finishing — it was just a tad greasy tasting. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. We all have a great deal to be thankful for. I know I do.